Mary and Passive

It has been a while since the last time I wrote on this blog.  Not because of lack of subjects, but probably because of lack of inspiration. That’s why today I want to redeem myself and share with you two stories of two inspiring people I met in Zambia.

Mary – the fighter
Mary, a 28-year-old woman is the preschool teacher in a small village called Musopelo B.  I mentioned Mary previously on this blog, but the more I know her, the more I want to share her story.
Mary just has one finger in each hand, but that doesn’t stop her to do anything. Actually, she is one of the best preschool teachers around and she’s not even trained. Every day, she teaches about 60 children from 9 am to 12 am. Her children know, among other things, the alphabet, the numbers, the colors, the shapes, the animals and how to write their names. This preschool doesn’t have a proper building (there are using the nearby church’s kitchen) and they don’t have benches (they borrow from the church).
Now Mary lives near the preschool. She is renting a “house” from her grandmother for K50 (about £5). This grandmother is not really her grandmother, but Mary sees her as family because she has helped her a lot. When she was in high school, she used to stay with this older woman.
Mary has a six-year-old daughter. We have never asked for her daughter’s father, but she says that she doesn’t have any husband. Like many other women in Africa, she says (half joking-half seriously) that she would like to marry a “Muzungu” (what they call to white people). However, she has bigger dreams – she wants to help her family to have a good life and maybe, one day, she can raise enough money to finish the 12th grade.
Mary has 6 brothers and sisters and her parents are still alive and still farming. One of her brothers is studying Medicine in Lusaka (capital of Zambia), but it doesn’t mean that their family is wealthy. Mary’s family faces some challenges and that’s why Mary is considering to stop teaching and to start a business.
She is paid K400/month (about £40) by the community and she says the money is not enough for her, for her child and to help the rest of her family.
 Before being a teacher, she was helping a shop owner to sell clothes. There, she says, she used to get K500/week (about £50). So now, her plan is to start to grow maize and sell it to raise money to start her own business - selling clothes - so she can help her family and also to have a good life.
Mary informed the community that she will leave the job if they don’t increase her salary. The preschool committee (group in charge of her salary) says that her salary will be increased, but Mary doesn’t believe it due to previous failed promises.
If the preschool committee does nothing to increase Mary’s salary, 60 children will be left without preschool teacher. If Mary chooses to stay, she will fail to help herself and her family. It’s a double-edged sword.
It is worth to say that Mary never loses hope – maybe because she believes in God. She also never loses  her good humor and simple way to see the things. She is not complaining about the way she was born or waiting for someone to solve her problems, like many people. She finds solutions.  She is always ready to do something to improve her life and help her family.

Passive – the entrepreneur
As you may know, I participated (together with my team mates) in a crowdfunding campaign to raise money to buy bikes and trailers to the communities in Zambia. At the end, we could raise enough money for 2 bikes, 2 trailers and 2 tool kits. We decided to give these items to two villages: Chitebulu and Namakolongo.
Passive lives in Namakolongo. He was our translator during the meeting we had with the communities to explain our project with the bikes and trailers.
This 27-year-old man is a community teacher (a teacher that is paid by the community, just like Mary) at Namakolongo school. Passive is not trained, but everybody says that he is a very good teacher. Nevertheless, Passive aims to become a trained teacher.
Passive’s life was not easy. His father died when he was 6. His old mother had to take care of him and his brothers with few resources. So, Passive couldn’t go to college to become a teacher. Instead, after finishing high school in 2007, he started to work at a Hardware Shop in Lusaka (capital of Zambia). He worked there for 2 years, but as he was not getting enough paid, he decided to move to the rural area to find a job.
Finally, he could find a job in a community school in a village nearby his oncle’s house, where he could stay. About 4 months ago, he moved to Namakolongo to continue his job as a community teacher. But he has never lost his focus on the Teachers Training College.
In Namakolongo, he started his fundraising project –  chicken farming. He is member of a farmer’s association in Lusaka which promotes chicken farming as a way to generate income and to improve the country’s health as well. As he mentioned, one of the important points of his project is to think positive.
In only 4 months, Passive could build everything he needs to keep the chicken. Now he just has to take good care of them and later sell them in the market.
Passive is also part of the Village Banking group in the village, which allows people who want to start a business to save, borrow money and share profit without going to the big banks in big cities. This Village Banking is helping Passive to continue his project. Despite the fact that he is the only man in the group, he is an active member there.
It is impressive how Passive, just like Mary, never loses hope and keeps following his dreams. Despite having had a difficult life, this entrepreneur doesn’t spend time complaining, just does the best he can to reach his goals.
Finally, his name doesn’t have anything to do with his personality. He should be Active instead of Passive. Passive says that maybe his parents had some kind of problem when he was born, but that his name will never affect the way he thinks.

I will never forget these powerful stories.
Mary and Passive are heroes. And I’m sure there are more heroes out there.
The more I think about these stories, the less I can understand why we complain so much, why we make things so difficult in our lives and why we are so negative.
Needless to say, these people don’t have half of things we have. They don’t have running water, electricity and all the technology that comes with it. What they have is faith and a big will to do something good with their lives.